SpiceJet apologised for the inconvenience caused to the passenger and will also provide a full refund. As the passenger kept waiting in the lavatory, a cabin crew slipped in a note asking the passenger not to panic and that despite trying their best, the door could not be opened.
Airline stocks have been soaring following a steep decline in crude oil prices and sustained passenger traffic. Analysts have particularly turned bullish on the stocks of InterGlobe Aviation and SpiceJet. On December 20, shares of InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) hit a record high of Rs 3,009 on the BSE, having surged 43.24 per cent year-to-date (YTD).
Aviation watchdog DGCA has taken off SpiceJet from its enhanced surveillance regime, a senior official said on Tuesday. The airline, which has been facing multiple headwinds, was placed under enhanced surveillance recently. The senior DGCA official said that in view of the observations made in the past concerning inadequate maintenance and in view of the incidents during the monsoon season last year, SpiceJet was placed under enhanced surveillance.
The Delhi high court has directed SpiceJet to deposit "forthwith" Rs 75 crore that has to be paid to media baron Kalanidhi Maran and his Kal Airways towards interest on an arbitral award of Rs 578 crore. The high court said, admittedly, there is no modification of the February 13, 2023 order passed by the Supreme Court in the case, and hence it needs to be followed. "Since the judgment debtor (SpiceJet) had failed to pay an amount of Rs 75 crores to decree holder (Maran and Kal Airways), hence in terms of para 15 (ii) of the order dated February 13, 2023 of the Supreme Court, there is no other alternative except to call upon the judgment debtors to deposit the entire outstanding amount qua interest forthwith, thus is so directed.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday questioned the maintainability of the insolvency plea filed against air carrier SpiceJet by one of its operational creditors Willis Lease Finance Corporation. A two-member NCLT bench comprising Members Mahendra Khandelwal and Rahul Prasad Bhatnagar observed that Willis Lease Finance Corporation has withdrawn its insolvency plea for the same dispute in March 2023 and has approached again with a new plea. The bench wanted to know as Willis Lease Finance Corporation, an aircraft lessor, had filed again for a similar cause of action within a few months.
The civil aviation ministry reports six aircraft engine shutdown incidents and three May Day calls in India this year. The Air India plane crash investigation is ongoing, with all aspects being examined.
SpiceJet said it faced a ransomware attack on Tuesday night, causing a delay in departure of its flights on Wednesday morning.
The DGCA has asked airlines to inspect the fuel switch locking system in their Boeing 787 and 737 planes after a preliminary probe report into the Air India crash found that the switches were cut off before the accident.
Months of uncertainty due to governance issues, turf wars and internal power struggles are set to end when the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) holds its much-delayed elections on Thursday.
This is at least the ninth incident of technical malfunction on a SpiceJet aircraft in the last 40 days.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would consider a joint request for mediation of low-cost airline SpiceJet and media baron Kalanithi Maran and his Kal Airways for amicably settling all pending disputes between them including the row over the share-transfer issue. A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices J K Maheshwari and Hima Kohli was apprised by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for SpiceJet, that there were three pending issues between the low-cost airline and Maran and out of these, one has been settled on July 29. Initially, Rohatgi sought four to six week time for settling all the issues between the parties.
Akasa Air's standalone net loss rose 18.7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to roughly Rs 1,983 crore in 2024-25 (FY25), driven by rising employee costs, aircraft maintenance and airport charges, and a sharp increase in foreign exchange (forex) expenses, sources privy to the development told Business Standard.
Incumbent Ajay Singh was on Thursday re-elected President of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) for a third consecutive term after his comprehensive victory over Jaslal Pradhan in the long-overdue polls.
SpiceJet has been facing operational and financial headwinds in recent times, and it is already under enhanced surveillance of the DGCA.
Aviation security regulator BCAS on Wednesday slapped fines totalling Rs 1.80 crore on IndiGo and Mumbai airport operator MIAL over the incident of passengers having food on the airport's apron. The apron is the area around the aircraft where it has finally parked for deboarding.
On May 1, SpiceJet's Mumbai-Durgapur flight encountered severe turbulence during its descent phase, injuring 14 passengers and three cabin crew members.
On Monday, the Boeing B737 Max aircraft with registration number VT-SZK operated the Mangaluru-Dubai flight, DGCA officials noted. After the aircraft landed, an engineer did a walk around inspection and found the nose wheel strut was compressed more than usual, they said.
The episode has been classified as an 'accident' as it has left serious injuries on passengers and crew members, the sources mentioned.
'In the inspections, no issues were found with the said locking mechanism.'
An alternate aircraft of Indian budget carrier SpiceJet flew to Dubai from Karachi's Jinnah International Airport on Tuesday night, ending a wait of nearly 11 hours for 138 passengers who got stranded there after taking off from New Delhi in the morning.
Aviation regulator DGCA has temporarily suspended SpiceJet's licence for the transportation of 'dangerous goods' for alleged violations, according to sources. The suspension is for 30 days, and during this period, SpiceJet will not be allowed to carry dangerous goods, including lithium-ion batteries, on its domestic as well as international flights, the sources told PTI on Friday. When contacted, a SpiceJet spokesperson did not directly mention the suspension.
SpiceJet will now be 'doubly careful' and strengthen inspection of aircraft before they leave to operate flights, airline's Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh said on Wednesday.
Low cost airline SpiceJet and Swiss firm Credit Suisse AG on Thursday told the Supreme Court they have resolved their financial dispute. The apex court then permitted SpiceJet to withdraw its appeal against a Madras high court verdict ordering that the airline be wound up on account of alleged non-payment of dues to Credit Suisse AG. "There is a settlement which has taken place on May 23, 2022 as per the consent terms.
Cooking oil is often discarded after being used for frying at home or in restaurants. However, a refinery of IndianOil has now won a certification to use the same oil to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), the company chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney said.
The Supreme Court has appointed its former judge P V Reddi to mediate the dispute between SpiceJet and its former promoter Kalinithi Maran, the airline said on Wednesday. The dispute dates back to 2015, when Maran sold his stake in SpiceJet of 58.46 per cent, or 50.4 million shares, to Ajay Singh for Rs 2 after the airline suffered financial trouble. A year later, Maran approached the Delhi high court, alleging a breach of agreement by Singh for not issuing him 189 million share warrants and preference shares despite Maran's Rs 679-crore infusion.
Boroscopic inspection of all operational engines of all Q400 engines within one week, immediate inspection of Magnetic Chip Detectors (MCD), drawing of engine oil samples every 15 days for analysis and inspection of bleed-off valve screen and housing for evidence of oil wetness in weekly check, are among the other directions.
SpiceJet said its freighter aircraft, which was heading to Chongqing in China, returned to Kolkata on Tuesday as the pilots realised after take off that its weather radar was not working.
SpiceJet has failed to 'establish safe, efficient and reliable air services' under the terms of Rule 134 and Schedule XI of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, the notice issued by the DGCA stated.
A SpiceJet spokesperson said that after take-off from Jeddah, ATC informed the pilots that tyre pieces were found on the runway.
Indian aviation regulator DGCA has barred 90 SpiceJet pilots from operating the Boeing 737 Max aircraft after finding them not properly trained. "For the moment, we have barred these pilots from flying the Max and they have to retrain successfully for flying the aircraft," DGCA chief Arun Kumar said in a statement. He also said that the regulator will take "strict action against those found responsible for the lapse."
SpiceJet on Tuesday said shareholders have approved the transfer of its cargo and logistics services business to a subsidiary, on a slump sale basis, through an all-share deal worth over Rs 2,555 crore, a move that will help the airline to significantly reduce its negative networth. Besides, the shareholders have cleared the proposal to raise up to Rs 2,500 crore through the Qualified institutional placement (QIP) route. These developments also come at a time when the airline industry is slowly recovering after being battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Civilian flight operations from the 32 airports across northern and western India, including Srinagar and Amritsar, were suspended from May 9 to May 15.
The operations of many global carriers, including Qatar Airways, have also been impacted due to the airspace curbs in the wake of the Middle East tensions.
SpiceJet will induct more Boeing 737 Max aircraft over the next few months and it hopes to start broadband internet service on its planes soon, its chairman and managing director (CMD) Ajay Singh said on Monday. The airline has a fleet of 91 aircraft, out of which 13 are Max planes and 46 are older versions of Boeing 737 aircraft, according to its website. In his email to employees on the 17th anniversary of the airline, Singh said the carrier continues to fly with the highest loads month after month and expects to soar even higher in the coming months.
Aviation regulator DGCA conducted 53 spot checks on 48 SpiceJet aircraft between July 9 and July 13 and it did not find any major safety violations, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh said on Monday. "However, as a safety measure, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered SpiceJet to use certain identified aircraft (10) for operations only after confirming to the regulator that all reported defects/malfunctions are rectified," Singh said in his written reply in Rajya Sabha. SpiceJet planes were involved in at least eight technical malfunction incidents in the 18-day period starting June 19, following which the DGCA had on July 6 issued a show-cause notice to the airline, stating that "poor internal safety oversight" and "inadequate maintenance actions" have resulted in degradation of safety margins.
In an unprecedented action, Indian aviation regulator DGCA has directed low-cost airline Spicejet to operate only 50 per cent of its flights for eight weeks. This follows an unusually high number of incidents involving the airline, raising safety concerns. The curtailment of capacity is unlikely to have any commercial impact on the airline owned by entrepreneur Ajay Singh. SpiceJet already operates less than 50 per cent of the flights it had filed for the summer schedule.
The two episodes on a single day have taken the total number of technical malfunction incidents involving SpiceJet aircraft to seven in the last 17 days.
During these eight weeks, the budget carrier will be subjected to "enhanced surveillance" by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
'For the moment, we have barred these pilots from flying the Max and they have to retrain successfully for flying the aircraft,' DGCA chief Arun Kumar said in a statement.
The Madras high court has ordered the winding up of private carrier SpiceJet Limited and directed the official Liquidator attached to the high court to take over its assets, in a plea filed by a Swiss company over unpaid dues. The court was allowing a company petition from Credit Suisse AG, a stock corporation registered under the laws of Switzerland, which prayed for winding up of the Indian firm under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and appoint the Official Liquidator of the high court as the liquidator with all powers under Section 448 of the Companies Act to take charge of SpiceJet's assets, properties, stock in trade and books of accounts. The "respondent company (SpiceJet) has miserably failed to satisfy the three pronged test suggested by the Supreme Court in Mathusudan Govardhandas & Co v Madhu Woollen Industries (P) Ltd, and hence had rendered itself liable to be wound up for its inability to pay its debts under Section 433 (e) of the Companies Act 1956," Justice R Subramanian said in his order on Monday and directed the private carrier be wound up and the official liquidator take over its assets.